Ryan Davis passed away July 3rd. This won’t be the greatest article, but I wanted to write at least something.

Honestly, I noticed a lack of tweets from him around July 5th, as I usually end up on his Twitter account for a bit to look for some laughs. I thought that maybe he was just taking a break, or found something more important to do for a bit. I understood. Today, the news came out of his passing, sometime around the morning. I must admit that I looked around to see if it was a joke, checking sources and such, being that the Giant Bomb crew are a ragtag group of hooligans. But once I remembered that the tweets stopped, it kinda hit me. Well, it may have still not hit me. I’m in this moment where I don’t know how to feel.

I never met Ryan Davis. I never met anyone who knew him. I was just dirt-bag kid who grew up listening to him and the rest of the Bombcast talk about video games and such. Sometimes I would listen to the casts just to hear how their weeks were going. And now, I wonder how I can ever feel close to someone I’ve never met. To hear about his passing to feel like a god has died. I cannot say I didn’t praise him. He was a funny guy who not only shared my feelings on video games, life, and ridiculousness, but was an amazing person. How do I know? How could you not. Everything Ryan did, he put his soul into, which made everything he did entertaining and fun to not only watch from an informative level, but from a personal level. To listen and watch Ryan laugh and have fun was fun for me. I envied the man took his passion to the fullest and created a job out of it. Maybe subconsciously, he helped start this podcast that I do with my friends.

Honestly, I dreamed of going to E3 one day and meeting him there. I cannot say that I did not have the greatest urge to be on the E3 panel for his podcasts, where he would ask me what I thought of the show and the games. I dreamed of having a beer or two with him. Ryan seemed like the guy where names did not matter. He wanted to know you and how you were, and he was sincere in return. I wanted to live in San Francisco for so long just so I could go to the Giant Bomb office and share hands with the guys. I bet Ryan woulda gave me a hug. That’s the guy he was.

So today, I lost a friend I never met. He never met me, and nor will he ever know the impact of Giant Bomb had on my childhood. That’s all I wanted to tell him. I just wanted to let him know that he work touched millions.